When should I penalise contact?

World Netball Rule 17. Every contact infringement is a penalty pass, taken where the infringer was standing (or where the contacted player was, if that would disadvantage the non-infringing team).

Interference (17.1-17.3): a player must not make contact, accidental or deliberate, that unfairly interferes with an opponent's play. Examples: pushing, tripping, grabbing, holding or leaning; knocking or hitting (including when shooting); hitting or putting hands on a ball an opponent holds; pushing the ball into an opponent.

It's only contact if it causes:

• the opponent to lose the ball;
• interference with their pass or shot; or
• a change in their body position that stops them moving freely and puts them at an unfair disadvantage.

Incidental contact that causes none of these is a fair contest. Play on.

Causing contact (17.4-17.7):

• A player who jumps from an on-court position must be allowed to land. When opponents jump together, the one who gains possession has priority to land along the line of the pass, and the others must yield.
• Don't move into a jumping player's landing place.
• Don't step so close or so quickly into a moving opponent's path that they can't stop or change direction. The more speed, the more time and space they must be given.

Inevitable contact (17.8): a player must not stand so close that the opponent can't move at all without contact.

Player safety (17.9): contact with an airborne player that risks their landing, moving into or not yielding a landing place, and forceful or reckless contact causing head or neck contact are normally dangerous play, needing a suspension or ordering off on top of the penalty pass.